Danny Chadwick
Uber Eats customers in Miami will see a new delivery option today. The company announced that automated robots can now deliver food and grocery orders. The robots will service the Dadeland area for now. Uber plans to expand the service to Miami-Dade and other cities in Florida starting in 2023.
The delivery robots will be under the control of Cartken, a robotics company that builds sidewalk delivery robots for food and grocery delivery. Before it inked this deal with Uber, Cartken delivered orders via automated robot to the Downtown Dadeland pedestrian mall and Miami’s Brickell neighborhood. So, the robots are already known in the area.
Uber will notify you in the app if your order is being delivered via robot. However, unlike human-delivered orders, you won’t have the option to have your food dropped on your porch. You’ll need to meet your delivery robot on the sidewalk and manually unlock it to get your food.
The robots themselves are about the size of a Radio Fyler wagon, painted white and black, with blue trim and six wheels. Cartken CEO Christian Bersch states, “Together, we have the opportunity to reduce traffic congestion, help local merchants to increase delivery capacity, and bring consumers fast, convenient, and emission-free deliveries.”
The introduction of robotic deliveries in Florida comes a week after Uber announced that riders can now hail robotaxis in Las Vegas. And the company has been offering driverless food deliveries in Los Angeles since May.
Sources: PR Newswire, Mashable
